We’ve all done it. Staying out late for work, or a ballgame or maybe dinner with friends and now it is time to head home. You pull out of the parking lot, head out on the road and suddenly a wave of exhausting and drowsiness envelops you and you have miles to go. You think to yourself, open a window? Maybe if you blast the radio? Maybe if you close one eye for a while and rest it, and then close the other eye for just a moment.
In a split-second you are heading across the yellow line or on a direct trajectory with a telephone pole.
First a few statistics about drowsy driving:
According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly ¼ of all adults in the U.S. claim to know someone personally who has fallen asleep at the wheel.
70 Million adults are sleep deprived or suffer from sleep disorders. It is a major contributor to car crashes. (Source: American Automobile Association)
One out of six deadly traffic accidents are a direct result of drowsy driving.
And each year, the ...

Ahhhh Spring! Finally, the snow and salt are gone, the car has been washed and waxed and after weeks of Netflix marathons, you are ready to head out to the open road. You cannot wait to push the accelerator, tune into your favorite songs and feel the wind in your hair.
Watch out! Beware the big orange cone!
Spring means many things, the robins return, the ice cream shops re-open and road crews are blocking lanes. It is a necessary evil. Winter can be brutal with potholes popping up, corrosion of overpasses and bridges, and erosion in safety lanes. The roadways need to be fixed for your safety and mine and many road crews put their lives in your hands when they step out onto the asphalt.
But on a recent trip, I happened to notice that many drivers are ignoring or forgetting some of the rules, regulations, laws and common sense learning that coincides with “sharing the road.”
So, a quick refresher on road safety inside and outside of work zones:
*THE PROBLEM OF POT HOLES: Just a few inc ...

When you notice them on the road, they really are a sight to behold. Sitting at a stop light, waiting for your turn to proceed, you look over at the driver in the lane next to you and there isn’t any one at the wheel of the car. You cannot help but do a double-take. Select states in the U.S. are currently testing sites for the autonomous car program including Nevada, Arizona and California, and there are plans to have the technology, sticker price and state laws in place to roll out to consumers by 2030.
Americans have been slow to warm up to the idea of surrendering the steering wheel. AAA released a poll this week that stated 78 percent of Americans are afraid to ride in a fully driverless car.
Between Jan. 5th and 8th, 2017, AAA interviewed 1,012 randomly selected adults via phone to gauge attitudes toward driverless cars. According to their responses, the AAA concluded that 78 percent of Americans are afraid to ride in a self-driving vehicle, while 19 percent would trust the vehicle. Only 10 ...

Two of the saddest and most disturbing statistics I have ever read:
According to a recently released report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
1. Traffic fatalities in the Continental U.S. were up 10.4 percent in the first six months of 2016 over the same time period in 2015.
The assumption is that if there is an increase in fatalities, it exists as a direct correlation to an increase in driving. But the number of vehicles on the road only rose 3.3 percent during that period. And state highway officials dismiss the association. Having more cars on the road does not necessarily lead to more crashes. Crowded roads can sometimes have the exact opposite effect by forcing drivers to pay closer attention to what is happening around them. Most people are unaware of the fact that accident rates on country roads are statistically higher than city avenues.
2. Even more shocking is the 18 percent rise in traffic fatalities over the comparable 2014 statistics.
Th ...

Wait? What just happened? You were cruising down the road, beautiful day, no traffic on the highway. Suddenly a car appeared out of nowhere, swerved in front of you and jammed on his brakes for no apparent reason. You attempted to swerve into the left lane, but a van suddenly appeared to your left and you had no choice but to hit the bumper of the car in front of you.
Suddenly chaos, the car you bumped is filled with passengers who are screaming of neck and back injuries. A few other autos stop and witnesses claim that you were driving erratically and had no control of your vehicle. When you point out the van that boxed you in, you realize that it is long gone.
You’ve been scammed. That particular Insurance Fraud Scenario is called: Swoop and Squat and it is designed to bilk your insurance agency of thousands of dollars.
Many dishonest drivers will maneuver innocent motorists into auto crashes. The cars may only suffer a small dent, but the crooks still make large and illegal claims for fake ...

We have all encountered it. A beautiful sunny afternoon, cruising down the highway at 55mph, window open, radio on and suddenly … a 10 foot piece of scrap metal is looming in front of you, directly in your path, right in the center of your travel lane.
Do you swerve to avoid it, cutting off the car that is in the next lane? Do you slam on your brakes and pray that the tractor trailer on your tail does not rear end you? Do you just hit it and pray that I does not destroy your undercarriage or become airborne and smash through a windshield.
AAA has recently released the following statistics concerning roadway litter:
*Since 2001, roadway accidents involving debris have escalated by 40%.
*Every year over 50,000 crashes are due to cars avoiding roadway litter.
*125 people die a year, more than 500 deaths between 2011 and 2014
*0ver 39,000 injuries are the direct result of refuse in the roadway.
Why the upswing? Multiple Reasons:
1. The Closing of Eisenhower Interstate Highway Sys ...

I remember my Uncle giving me advice around the Thanksgiving table when I was on the brink of my 17th Birthday. “Red is bad”, He stated. “Never, every buy a red sports car. You will be swimming in tickets.” That was always the rumor back in the day. Police officers looked to ticket cars that were painted red. They assumed that “red” meant “hot rod, speed demon, and lead foot." That assumption has been dis-proven over the years.
But, according to a recent study published at, yourmechanic.com, there does seem to be a correlation between automobile make and model and odds of receiving a ticket for a moving violation. According to a recent survey of 323,000 drivers ticketed for moving violations: running a red light, driving at night without headlights, illegal turns, illegal parking, running a stop sign or speeding, the two makes and models that received the most tickets were the Lexus ES 300 and the Nissan 350Z, with almost ⅓ of drivers (or 1 ...

It happened just two weeks ago. A few miles from our Corporate Office. A mother, her elementary school-aged daughter, a family friend and two dogs were driving in their Volkswagen Passat on Inter-State 84 at 4am when the car ran out of gas in the right-hand travel lane. The mother proceeded to activate the cars emergency flashers and call 911 to seek assistance. Three minutes into the call the car was rear-ended by a tractor trailer and all were killed.
No one knows exactly what happened. The truck driver did not see the blinking lights on the rear of the auto until it was too late for him to stop on the roadway. The problem was compounded by the fact that the auto remained in the travel lane of a two lane, highly trafficked, interstate, after it ran out of fuel.With summer approaching, vacation season "ramping up", college students home for the summer and families embarking on road trips, June would serve as the optimal time to share some automobile safety reminders. With an emphasis on what to ...

I see this in my office rather often. A prospective client walks through the front door, inquiring if we can provide him with auto insurance quotes. He will sit with Cindy, our Marketing Executive and begin providing information so that she can find him a fair rate from the dozens of insurance carriers we offer.
As proper documentation is presented from the client: driver’s license, copies of old auto insurance policies, Defensive Driving certificates from safety classes; Cindy will begin asking a series of questions that she feeds into the computer to receive comparative rates from different insurance carriers. Once the rates are received, she will discuss with the client, the rates that were quoted and the associated coverage for each.
People are often blindsided by rates and do not understand how the premium was reached by each carrier. Often they will remark that they have an impeccable driving record …. No tickets, no claims, no accident, and that is entirely possible and it is facto ...